


I'll Be Home For Christmas

by MittenWraith



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, F/M, Holidays, M/M, POV Claire Novak, let them all have nice things for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28249935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MittenWraith/pseuds/MittenWraith
Summary: Claire and Kaia were enjoying a little road trip, when a sudden snowstorm derailed their plans to get home in time for Christmas. They take an unscheduled detour to the bunker, where as a new couple spending their first Christmas together, the fit right in to the festive wonderland the Winchesters carved out for themselves.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak
Comments: 24
Kudos: 146





	I'll Be Home For Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Happy All-idays! I didn't want to miss a year writing something up for the season, but this year all I could muster was a slice of life bit of fluff. Cozy fluff is good for the soul, though, so I hope y'all enjoy it. :)

“Hey, Claire,” Jody said down the phone line. “Just checking in. You finished up that salt and burn yet?”

Claire rolled her eyes fondly. Since Kaia had come back to her, Jody had mostly been trying to give them their space. They’d spent a week or so at Jody’s as Kaia settled back into normal reality and living indoors, finally free of her lifetime of nightmares. After a year living in a hell world where life was a daily battle for survival, though, Kaia had grown an entirely new sort of restlessness that Claire understood perfectly.

When Claire announced that she and Kaia were going out hunting, Jody had protested. As soon as she saw the look on Kaia’s face, vibrating with excitement for the relatively safe adventure of a road trip and ghost hunt after a year fighting off armies of those alternate universe monsters, Jody agreed that a hunt she would’ve trusted Claire to handle by herself just a few weeks earlier would be the perfect excuse for the two of them to get a bit of alone time. They deserved the time and space to themselves, and run of the mill salt and burns were something Jody didn’t even blink at Claire taking on her own anymore.

“Yeah, we finished up a few days ago. Kaia wanted to see the ocean, since we were only an hour or two away, so we headed over to Savannah and have been playing tourist.”

Jody smirked into the phone, but she could picture the two of them hanging around on the waterfront eating ice cream and making fun of all the kitchy ghost lore around the town. A handful of cities traded on their haunted pasts to bring in tourists, and Savannah was right near the top of that list. She’d been about to make a joke about not hunting an entire town out of their tourism industry, when Claire went on.

“Plus it’s still warm here. It’s weird seeing Christmas lights in palm trees, but it’s fun in its own way. We promise we’ll leave tomorrow, in time to make the drive home before the big day. We got the last of our shopping done this afternoon, and we’re headed out of town to the nearest cheap motel we can find.”

“While I’ll look forward to a box of pralines and whatever other souvenirs you picked up on your travels, I was calling to give you the heads up on the local weather,” Jody said, turning serious. “It might be shorts weather in Georgia, but we’re brewing up a white Christmas in Sioux Falls. It’s supposed to start dumping on us by dawn, and it’s not really due to let up until Christmas eve, at the earliest.”

Claire glanced at Kaia, who was delighted to be driving while Claire got to sit back in the passenger seat and just admire her for it. She didn’t want to do or say anything that might wipe the smile from Kaia’s face, and the two of them had really been looking forward to a cozy holiday at home with their family. It would’ve been Kaia’s first ever real Christmas, and Jody had been planning to pull out all the stops. And now they wouldn’t even be able to get home in time. She shifted her phone to her other ear and sighed. It wasn’t as if any of them could control the weather, and sometimes blizzards just happened.

“Do you think we might be able to make it by the 25th?”

“You might, if you can even find a place to stay along the way. If you’re gonna try to get here, take your time and plan in advance. Don’t leave finding a room to chance. Safety first. We’d all rather you were a few days late than find you frozen to death in a snow bank after the storm’s passed.”

Claire rolled her eyes again, and Kaia finally gave her a concerned glance before turning her attention back to the road. There was nothing for it, so Claire laid it all out.

“How far do you think we can make it safely before we start hitting snow? Just to get us within a day’s drive so we’re able to come home as soon as the roads are clear.”

Jody made a considering noise as she checked the regional forecast map. “You’ll probably be good if you stay south of Nebraska and Iowa. Plus that’ll put you close enough for an easy day’s drive once everything gets plowed. The timing is just the worst, with the holiday and half the local road crew already either out with the flu or off visiting their own families.”

At least it wasn’t as bad as Claire had been imagining. Jody’s comment of _south of Nebraska_ gave her what might’ve been the best and worst idea she’d had in a long time. She snuck another glance at Kaia and then lowered her voice a bit, as if Kaia wouldn’t hear exactly what she was saying anyway.

“So… do you know if anyone’s home at the Bunker? Or did they all head south for the winter, too?”

“Far as I know, they’re all hunkered down at home,” Jody replied. “I invited them to spend a few days with us, but Sam and Eileen wanted to do their Couple’s First Christmas together, and Dean, Jack, and Cas were all busy playing Santa’s helper to make that happen. From what Sam said, they’ve turned the place into a regular winter wonderland.” She hesitated for a moment, and then sighed. “You know what, the two of you would probably fit right in there with the whole holiday love fest theme they have going.”

Claire bit her lip, wondering just how pissed they’d be if she and Kaia were to intrude on their festivities. The bunker was a big place, though, and they wouldn’t take up too much space. And if Sam and Eileen really wanted their privacy, Claire would be content sleeping in the garage, as long as they had access to the kitchen and a bathroom for a couple days.

“You could give them a call and see if they have room for another couple to butt in on all their romantic plans,” Jody offered. “Or you can always just hang out with the other elves in the dungeon, or wherever they’ve set up their secret workshop.”

“You don’t think they’d be mad?” Claire asked.

“They actually invited all of us down there a few weeks back, but I couldn’t arrange enough time off to make the trip,” Jody replied. “I think you’ll still be welcome. Maybe mention the pralines when you knock on their door, too. You can usually bribe Dean with a treat like that.”

Claire snorted. “You’d be willing to sacrifice your candy to the cause? Because me and Kaia already ate our share.”

“They won’t be fresh by the time you get here anyway,” Jody replied. “I’ll live, if it helps your cause.”

“Okay, then. I’ll give Dean a call, and I’ll check in with you when we know what’s up.”

“You do that, kiddo. Drive safe now.”

“Thanks, Jody.”

Claire sat staring at her phone for a few minutes until Kaia couldn’t stand it anymore and pulled over to the side of the road.

“So what’s the deal? I take it we’re not gonna make it home for Christmas.”

Claire shook her head, finger hovering over Dean’s entry in her phone. “Well, we’re making it to _a_ home for Christmas, one way or another.”

Fifteen minutes later, they were back on the road. Dean was more than happy to have them hang out for a few days, and had hung up rather abruptly after yelling to Cas that they had more shopping to do.

“He actually sounded excited,” Kaia said. “I could hear him from here. I didn’t know Dean actually got that happy about anything.”

Claire laughed. “Yeah, he’s like a kindergartner on a sugar rush when you trip one of his switches. Pie, music, holidays, lame movies, food, mini golf-- any excuse to be a total dork, really. He’s probably wearing a Santa hat and issuing tickets to people who aren’t acting jolly enough.”

“Now that I can believe.”

“I told them we’d be there sometime tomorrow afternoon, so tonight we’ll just drive until we find a decent place to stop.”

Kaia smiled at her, leaned over for a quick kiss, and then pulled back onto the highway. “Sounds like a plan.”

The next evening as they neared the Lebanon town line, Claire called Dean again to let him know they were almost there. The phone rang for so long Claire was certain it was about to go to voicemail, but then it was answered with a series of fumbling sounds and a string of cursing before Castiel finally cleared his throat and answered Dean’s phone.

“Hello, Claire. Dean is sorry his hands were otherwise occupied and he asked if I would answer the phone for him.”

In the background, Claire could hear Dean grumbling and a distinctive clattering of metal that sounded like kitchen noises.

“Did… did I interrupt something?” Claire asked, wondering what on earth was going on at the bunker.

Cas laughed, and Claire could still hear the smile in his voice as he went on. “Oh, no. Dean is just removing the final batch of cookies from the oven. His goal was to produce a quote _epic buttload_ of cookies for everyone to decorate tonight. I believe he may have succeeded.”

“Yeah, and now we just need to make icing,” Dean called out loud enough for Claire to hear him clearly this time. “Are they almost here?”

“Are you almost here?” Cas repeated dutifully, but entirely unnecessarily. He must’ve been standing right beside Dean.

“Yeah, we’re entering Lebanon now. Just another mile or so, and we’ll be there.”

“We’ll be waiting for you then,” Cas replied, and then hung up.

Claire laughed and handed her phone to Kaia as she pulled up the hill toward the bunker. “We might not have made it home for Christmas, but I think we’re gonna have a good time with these dorks anyway.”

“What on earth did we get ourselves into?” Kaia asked, half excited and half terrified for whatever holiday extravaganza Dean had planned for them.

Sam and Eileen greeted them at the front door as they got out of the car. Both of them wore fluffy sweaters with a holiday theme-- Sam’s knitted with a pattern of moose and snowflakes, and Eileen’s patterned with bluebirds wearing little scarves. 

“We’re not breaking some sort of dress code, are we?” Kaia asked, waving a hand down herself and her hunter standard flannel and denim.

Sam laughed. “Nah, we were just feeling in the holiday spirit around here. It’s kinda hard not to, when everything’s been going so well for the last few months.”

“We heard Dean has been organizing the elf brigade to deck the halls,” Claire said, grabbing their bags from the trunk and heading toward the door.

Sam signed as he spoke. “Yeah, and he was really disappointed that we couldn’t convince anyone else to spend the holidays with us. He’s ridiculously thrilled the two of you got detoured this way, so try to be nice about how insanely over the top he’s acting about it all.”

Eileen added, “It’s actually good to see him so happy after everything we’ve all been through this year.”

“Tell me about it,” Kaia said. “This is my first real Christmas since, well, ever, and a year ago I thought I might never even make it back to this world at all. We’ve got a lot to celebrate.”

Eileen bumped her shoulder against Kaia’s and grinned. “A year ago I was in Hell, so I know what you mean.”

“It’s also Cas’s first Christmas as a human,” Sam added, “so Dean’s been going all out for his sake, too.”

“Yeah, he told us about the epic buttload of cookies,” Claire replied as they headed inside. “Should we be worried? Can Dean actually bake?”

Sam laughed as he opened the door to the landing and the aroma of fresh-baked cookies wafted throughout the war room. “Sure smells like it. But first, we’ve been holding dinner for you guys, Dean’s got pizza in the oven as we speak, and it should be ready in just a few minutes.”

They stepped through the door expecting maybe a sad little Christmas tree in a corner, and were immediately accosted by miles of lighted garland, fake snow, and tinsel adorning every surface. A massive tree stood in the center of the library, where one of the tables had been pushed to the side of the room and laid out with trays of cookies and every conceivable type of sprinkles and decorative icing tubes from the grocery store. A pile of festively wrapped gifts spread out across a substantial part of the floor, and even more holiday greenery hung from every bookshelf.

“This is a lot more festive than we were expecting,” Claire said, running a finger over a poinsettia blossom in a cluster of plants in the center of the war room table.

“Yeah, we’re eating in the kitchen because Dean won’t let anyone mess up the decorations out here until tomorrow night,” Sam said, leading them down the hall.

Some of the doors they passed were adorned with tiny wreaths, while others sported a sprig of mistletoe hanging from the lintel, and still others were decorated with sprays of holly and pine tied together with red and gold ribbons. Claire leaned over to Kaia as they walked, pointing out one of the mistletoe-adorned doorways.

“I wonder whose room that is, and would they mind maybe opening the door just enough for us to get in on their mistletoe action…”

Before Kaia could answer, Sam turned to her with a grin. “That’s our room, and Dean thinks he’s hilarious hanging it up there. But you’re welcome to borrow the mistletoe if you think you really need it.”

Kaia smirked, and then leaned over to plant a kiss on Claire’s cheek. “We haven’t needed it so far.”

Sam smiled broadly at her as they turned the corner into the kitchen and Dean’s baking wonderland. The aroma of roasting garlic and cheese warred with the ginger and cinnamon of the cookies cooling on the counter as Dean stood at the counter with Cas whipping up a huge batch of frosting. He switched off the mixer and invited Cas to give it a taste. Cas scooped up a tiny dollop with a spoon and put on a brave face as he considered the flavor with all the seriousness of a restaurant critic writing a review.

“It’s very sweet,” he announced as they finally noticed they had company.

Dean glanced up and grinned at them, but patted Cas on the shoulder. “It’s supposed to be sweet, dude. It’s like ninety percent sugar. It’ll taste better on the cookies. Trust me.”

Cas nodded. “Of course I trust you, Dean.”

Dean ran his hand across Cas’s back as he walked across the room to scoop Claire and Kaia both up in a hug. “Glad you two could make it. The more the merrier, especially for Christmas.”

Cas was there to hug them both as soon as Dean released them. He’d become a lot more touchy-feely since becoming human, and Claire was slowly growing to appreciate his hugs.

“We’re sorry you couldn’t make it back to your own home for the holiday, but we’re glad to have you here,” he added. “Jack will be back soon, but he asked us to go ahead with the celebrations in his absence.”

“Celebrations?” Claire asked, as Kaia wondered aloud, “Where did he go?”

Sam stepped up behind them and ushered them over to the table. “We’re already celebrating, and Jack just ran out to cut a few more pine boughs. He’s the one who’s been in charge of _green-ifying_ everything, on Dean’s orders.”

“Hey, I didn’t _order_ him to do anything,” Dean replied, indignant, as he took the pizza out of the oven and set it on the counter to cool. “He wanted to help get in the spirit of things, and I handed him a Martha Stewart holiday magazine. I can’t help that the kid has a flair for decorating.”

Jack returned with a wheelbarrow full of greenery not long after. He stayed in the kitchen long enough to exchange pleasantries with Claire and Kaia before retiring to his room with a plate of pizza and a promise to join them for cookie decorating later. On his way out of the kitchen he tacked another spray of mistletoe above the kitchen doorway with a smirk over his shoulder at Dean, who sputtered after him.

“Hey, we don’t need any more of that around here. There’s enough kissing in public spaces to go around as it is.”

“Don’t crush his holiday spirit, Dean,” Claire said to him. “Just because Sam and Eileen aren’t afraid to show their love doesn’t mean you need to be a grumpy old man about it.”

Sam nearly choked on his pizza, and Eileen patted him on the back with a smirk directed toward Dean.

“Sam’s not big on PDA,” Eileen said.

Kaia and Claire exchanged a confused glance, before Kaia finally broke the uncomfortable silence.

“Okay, so I know I’m kinda new around here still, and Claire and I have been out of the loop on the local gossip for the last few months, but who does that leave doing all the public kissing around here?”

It only took Claire a few seconds to figure it out, just looking at the way Dean turned beet red and refused to look at anyone, while Cas absently nudged a pizza crust around his plate. She’d had moments where she’d wondered about the two of them in the past, and for a good long while she’d thought they were keeping their relationship secret from her out of respect for Jimmy or fear of what she’d think about a virtual duplicate of her father shacking up with a dude. A few months living with Jody and a couple awkward conversations about them later and she was sure there was nothing but awkward tension between the two of them. But their current dodginess pretty much threw that old certainty out the window.

“Huh,” Claire finally said. “So you two finally got your heads out of your asses, then? Well, good for you.”

Cas froze and stared at her for a minute, searching her face for any sign of disapproval or disgust. The warm smile she’d fixed him with gave him nothing but relief.

“You’re not upset?”

Claire shrugged, while Kaia continued to look confused beside her.

“You’re not my dad, Castiel. You might look like him, but you’re not him. You deserve to be happy, too.”

“Wait,” Kaia said. “Dean and Cas are a thing? Well, that’s kind of monumental. Why didn’t anyone think to tell us?”

“Out of the loop on purpose, remember?” Claire replied. “Looks like we had the same idea these two had, taking some time for ourselves to work things out.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Dean replied. “But Jody knew. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you, or at least give you a heads up before you crashed our Christmas party.”

“She probably figured it would make a nice surprise,” Claire said, sounding as if that was exactly what it was for her. “I’m happy for both of you. You deserve nice things after everything the two of you have been through.”

Dean cleared his throat and pointed between Claire and Kaia with his beer bottle. “Same with the two of you. We’re happy for you, too.”

The six of them sat around the table a little while longer, just wallowing in their mutual contentment. Eventually Dean demanded they all retire to the library to decorate cookies, informing them that there would be a full day of holiday activities starting the next morning.

“Good thing we showed up when we did,” Claire said eventually after giving an array of gingerbread men an icing wardrobe befitting any decent hunter. “Christmas Adam cookie decorating, Christmas Eve movie marathon and popcorn stringing jamboree. Would’ve been a shame to miss any of this.”

“So you’re not disappointed we didn’t make it home?” Kaia asked as she put the finishing touches on a moose-shaped cookie wearing a shirt that resembled Sam’s to an uncanny degree.

Claire looked across the room to where Dean and Cas stood shoulder to shoulder arranging their gingerbread family in front of a cookie replica of the bunker. Eileen sat watching Sam attempt to string sigil shaped cookies to hang on the tree as ornaments, quietly snagging the accidentally broken cookies to dunk in her tea. It was all ridiculously Christmas card perfect, despite being nothing like she’d ever imagined a happy holiday should be.

This was nothing like Claire ever expected her life to turn out, but she couldn’t argue with the results. She’d found her family in the strangest and most roundabout possible way, enduring angels and demons and alternate universes to fight for what she loved most. She turned and smiled at Kaia.

“Not in the least. This is pretty much the true meaning of Christmas right here.”

She gave Kaia’s hand a squeeze, and without need of any mistletoe at all leaned in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, and I hope your Christmas Adam is as festive and full of surprise goodness as the Winchester extended family's was.
> 
> If you're interested in more holiday fluffiness, you can find a masterpost of all my past holiday fic [right here](https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/181338955040/happy-holidays-have-some-holly-jolly-destiel).
> 
> As usual, you can find me on the tumbls. I'm [mittensmorgul](https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com).


End file.
